Alright, let’s talk about diving into Theatrhythm Final Bar Line and deciding to grab all those trophies. When I first booted it up, I was just excited to play through all that classic Final Fantasy music again. Didn’t really think about trophies much at the beginning.
So, my first step was pretty straightforward. I just jumped into the Series Quests. Seemed like the natural place to start, right? I started working my way through the different Final Fantasy titles, unlocking songs and characters as I went. It felt good, just enjoying the rhythm game mechanics and the nostalgia. I played mostly on Basic or Expert difficulty at this point, just getting a feel for things. Didn’t push too hard, just focused on clearing the quests and seeing all the content.
After clearing a good chunk of the series quests, I started looking at the trophy list properly. That’s when I realised, oh boy, there’s a bit of work involved here. Leveling up all characters to 99? Getting all the CollectaCards? Playing a ton of songs? Okay, time to get a bit more organised.
Leveling Up the Crew
The character leveling seemed like a big one. So, I started building specific parties. I tried to mix characters I liked with ones that had useful abilities for scoring or survival. I remember focusing on getting at least one character from each game represented, just to spread the love initially. Then it became about efficiency. I found a few Field Music Stages (FMS) that were long and gave decent experience. I’d put characters I needed to level in the party and just run those stages over and over. Music Select mode was great for this too, just pick a long song with lots of triggers. Yeah, it got repetitive, but putting on a podcast or some music in the background helped pass the time. Slowly but surely, those level numbers started climbing.
The CollectaCard Hunt
Now, the CollectaCards… that was a test of patience. You get them randomly by playing songs, right? So, it meant playing songs. A lot. I made sure to always have Item Drop boosting abilities active on my party members. I think Rinoa has one? Can’t remember exactly now. Anyway, I equipped whatever boosted drop rates. Then, I just started systematically playing through songs I hadn’t played much, especially on higher difficulties, hoping for different cards. Sometimes I’d get lucky streaks, other times I’d play for an hour and get nothing new. The duplicates turning into shards felt a bit slow at first, but eventually, those shards helped fill in the gaps for the really rare cards I just couldn’t seem to get to drop. That specific trophy for getting them all felt like a real milestone when it finally popped.
Tackling Specific Challenges
Beyond the grinding, there were those specific trophies. Clearing songs on Ultimate, and eventually Supreme difficulty, took practice. I had to really learn the patterns. Lots of trial and error, especially on Supreme. Getting an All Critical rating on 100 songs sounded daunting, but I found that focusing on easier songs on Basic or Expert first helped build confidence and rhythm. Then I gradually moved to harder ones. Full Chains came naturally for many songs while doing this, but getting that specific trophy required focusing on not breaking combo.
I also had to pay attention to things like using specific abilities a certain number of times. So, I’d slot those abilities into my grinding parties and just let them trigger naturally over time. The cumulative trophies, like total notes hit or total Rhythmia gathered, just sort of happened in the background while I was doing everything else, which was nice.
Oh, and the ProfiCard collecting! That meant dipping into Multi Battle. I just hosted some rooms and played with random people online. Exchanged ProfiCards after each match. It wasn’t too bad, most people online were just there to play and trade too. Got that one done over a few sessions.
The Home Stretch
Towards the end, it was mostly clean-up. Checking the trophy list, seeing I needed maybe a few more All Criticals, or level up that one last character. The grind for the last few levels from say, 90 to 99 felt particularly slow for some characters. But by then, the end was in sight. The final trophy for me was, I think, leveling the last character to 99. It felt kind of fitting.
When that platinum trophy (or equivalent final achievement notification) finally appeared, it was a great feeling. A mix of relief that the grind was over and satisfaction for seeing it through. It took a good chunk of time, definitely, but honestly, because the core gameplay is so fun and the music is fantastic, the journey itself was enjoyable for the most part. It was a solid rhythm game experience, and going for all the trophies made me engage with pretty much every aspect of it.
